Sometimes Perfect Is Okay

My journey toward building a family through adoption has reached the final stretch. Amidst the house preparation, paperwork, and anticipation came an extraordinary moment of triumph, relief, and comfort -- I decided on a name for my daughter to be. It took every bit of 4+ years of flipping through name books and browsing web sites, revolving top five lists, contemplating meaning, spelling, syllables, associations... you get the idea ... I couldn't decide on a name.

Last Saturday I made yet another attempt to search for a name on the web. I found a site and searched for names that meant "moon." The Chinese calendar is based on the moon and there is a Moon festival, so with "meaning" in mind I was curious. Among the list of names was "Phoebe." Phoebe had been among my top five choices off and on over the years. Hmmm. Then I remembered that the Jewish calendar is based on lunar months,too. Hmmmm. Double meaning. Connecting both cultures. Hmmmmm. I googled about both calendars and discovered that the Moon Festival is a chinese harvest holiday that is celebrated in the fall... and that Sukkot, the jewish fall harvest festival, are always celebrated on the same day because both cultures use the same lunar calendar. Hmmmmmmmmmmm. I like that. I'm excited that I might have finally found a name with significance. Not because of spelling or syllables, but because of connection. Triumph!

I shared my decision with a friend who has a little girl named Phoebe. She shared with me that there is a bird, a Fee Bee. Interesting? Sure. Cute? Sure. An incredible coincidence? You bet. The theme of the baby's room for all of these four years has been birdhouses. Enough said. Decision made. Not even a second thought. Phoebe is the right name for her and us.

The relief of the decision and the comfort of its "perfectness" has moved the abstract nature of an endless wait to a concrete reality of a little girl with a name.